You’re a Nuggets fan. You hate San Antonio. Sure you do. You think Manu Ginobili flops. You think Tim Duncan gets all of the calls no star on the Nuggets will ever get. The Spurs are the closest equivalent to your inner Bronco hating the Raiders.

And they both wear black-and-silver.

And the Spurs aren’t making life easier by winning. They are winning this season, and winning a lot. At 36-6 they own the NBA’s best record, and they are doing it in a way few thought possible — without large contributions every night from Duncan.

In fact, Duncan’s numbers are down significantly in a number of categories. He’s playing the fewest minutes of his career in this, his 14th season. He’s not even scored 10 points on 14 occasions this season, one of them being on Sunday against the Nuggets. But in those games the Spurs are still 12-2.

It’s all going well for the team from the Alamo City, and if Nuggets coach George Karl had to choose a favorite at the halfway point to win the title, the Spurs are his horse.

“I think right now, if I had to pick a team that I think could win it, I’d probably pick San Antonio,” Karl said.

Why?

“They win close games,” Karl added. “They win at home, they’re a good defensive team and they are a powerful offensive team. They have more depth than I’ve ever seen them have. They have more versatility than they’ve had in a long time.

“And this is the first time I’ve seen (coach Gregg Popovich) turn on the mental edge early in the season. He (usually) waits. He kind of waits for that rodeo trip, or after the All-Star (break) – let’s win 10 in a row or 13 out of 15 or something like that. He’s put the gas pedal down pretty hard all season long.”

CSU sets up big showdown.
CSU coach Tim Miles’ Rams have a goal to crash the top four in the Mountain West Conference this season, and with a impressive blowout road victory over UNLV Wednesday night, they are doing just that.

At third in the MWC, Colorado State (13-5, 3-1) is going to get its shot to open many, many eyes on Saturday. All it has to do is slow down Jimmer Fredette and beat No. 9 BYU at Moby Arena. Tough task? Absolutely. The Cougars are a top 10 team for a reason. A win there, though, would put the Rams squarely on the national radar and go a very long way to establish themselves along with BYU and San Diego State as the top three teams in the conference and, yes, start to make NCAA Tournament dreams come into actual focus.

NBA scout’s take on: CSU F Andy Ogide.
He has an NBA body in terms of upper body size and strength, but he’s a little short to play the four spot at the NBA level. He has a limited back to the basket game and lacks NBA-caliber ball skills for his position. He often goes to the right-handed jump hook or simply overpowers people at the rim. This will not happen in the NBA. He will have to develop better footwork and more ways to score around the rim. Tim Miles is a great coach and does a good job maximizing Ogide on both ends, which ends up hiding some of his deficiencies. He plays hard on defense and will hit the boards. He also generally sets good screens and has strong hands.
Based on what I’ve seen so far this season, I don’t think he’s an NBA player and don’t think he’ll get drafted. He’ll likely get a summer league invite from someone, and I could see him playing next season in the D-League or overseas. I would show the kid tapes of a player like (former UNLV standout) Lou Amundson, because if he’s going to play in the NBA, he’s going to have to develop into that kind of high-energy role player.

Boyle’s Buffs giving Billups sense of Déjà vu.
There is money to be won back. And Chauncey Billups is taking aim on all of those who so ungraciously took his in the past, using his heart against him as he bet time after time for his CU Buffs to diminishing returns.

Now is get-back time, and Billups is happy to take up the challenges on a team that has sprinted out to a 14-5, 3-1 in the Big 12. But moreso, Colorado has carved out a team Billups says reminds him of his 1996-97 NCAA Tournament team when he played in Boulder.

“I think it does,” Billups said. “We were kind of a running up-and-down team. We had some playmakers on the wing, with myself; Martice Moore was kind a small forward type of guy. We weren’t that big in the interior, but we were athletic in the interior kind of similar to how they are playing. We pressed and wore teams down at home. We only lost one home game that year, to Kansas, and we should have beat them. But it is very similar.”

Colorado has opened a lot of eyes with its play under first-year head coach Tad Boyle, and while Billups is happy — “It’s a great feeling, man” — he’s also not too surprised.

“I’m not really shocked,” Billups said. “I thought it would take a little longer, but when you’ve got some really good players and good leadership with Alec (Burks) and Cory (Higgins), the sky’s the limit. You keep games close and you have two good players like that, that can close people out you can win games.”

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.

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